Bulgarian Daze

Still here….still kicking…still no Spain and Canada pictures. Sorry. This work thing is really taking over my life. And let’s just say that it hasn’t exactly been “easing back into” the place. Ooooohhhhhhh noooooooooo. It’s been just short of solid misery, what with my relaxed, chill-out, been-on-vacation-for-like-12-months state of mind juxtaposed with the ugly demands of the job. And ask any teacher….the week before the kids come back is HORRIBLE.

I go to work at like 6:00 am and tonight I returned at 8:00ish. That leaves time to eat a peach for dinner, shower to wash away all the school dirt, and crawl into bed, hoping that the laundry fairy comes while I am asleep (oh, yeah, and all my clothes for work are still in storage, so add sifting through everything I own to my list of things that must be done before Tuesday morning….), But I won’t leave you hanging. I WILL put those pictures up.

Just not tonight….

We are nearing the end of our year here, and therefore, the end of the blog. I have put up a few posts today to try to encapsulate our time here in Victoria. In the next few days I hope to have time to post all the Spain and Canada pictures in the Gallery (they aren’t there yet, so don’t go looking), and then that will be it. So long, farewell, until we meet again….blah blah blah.

So read all the posts I have put up here lately and then check back in a few days to see the pictures. Don’t worry, I will leave the blog up for a while, even if I don’t update it. I need to figure out how to print in in the format I want and that should take, well, months probably.

So…enjoy peeps!

…I saw a bear. Do you know that song? We used to sing it when I was in Girl Scouts when I was young. Well, it is now more than just a song to me! I saw a real live bear the other day. Not just one, but two!!!!!!! Big, ginormous, hungry, blackberry-eating black bears.

We went out to this river which is a couple of hours north. We were just going to look for bears and other wildlife and maybe do a little fishing. (Of course once Mark heard the word “fishing” he immediately envisioned the granddaddy salmon being attached to his line. Needless to say, we lost him at some point. He cared not about bears or elk or anything else. Just the fish…..) Well…as soon as we turned on to this lttle dirt road off the big dirt road, we saw a bear. He was so cute and seemed so cuddly. He ran across the road and then hung out by a tree to see what we would do. I tried to get a picture of him but he ran away before I could. Grrrrr!

We stopped at a few places to try to catch some fish. Mark hooked a couple of anchovies on his line. Ok, they weren’t really anchovies. They were some other kind of fish that are supposed to get up to like 15 pounds, but Mark’s looked like anchovies. While we were there, we saw this:

This dude was HUGE and FAT and I wouldn’t want him coming at me, that’s just all I need to say about that! We went to a few more places and down an even smaller road and that’s where we saw our second black bear. He was bigger than the first and he darted across the road. He didn’t seem as friendly as our first bear.

We also saw some river otters playing around. This place is like a real live zoo, I tell ya! No cages, no nothing. Which is a little unnerving. Like when we saw the first bear, we drove a little ways up the road and got out to talk the dogs and there was all this bear poop on the road. Let’s just say I wasn’t feeling exactly comfortable. But Sig (You’ll remember, he was our boat captain from the crabbing day), told me that there haven’t been any deaths in 20 years here from bears. Of course he also told me that he usually comes with a gun or something and this time he had nothing. Greaaaaat……

Anyways, the day was nice, the weather was warm and the animals were amazing!!!! You people gotta come visit this place! Just take a look:

So the beauty of actually knowing people here in Victoria is that we get to do things not usually found on the tourist agenda. For example, today we played like we were on the Discovery Channel and went out crabbing in the Bering Sea ocean inlet. I opted to refer to our rig as the Northwest (ok, so we were in a small metal boat…perhaps not the same) and to call our captain by his crabbing name of Sig (you REALLY have to be an avid fan of the show to understand my references here….sorry if you aren’t….)

I gathered all my gear and my dry suit fleece sweater just in case some rogue monster waves plunged me into the icy Arctic Pacific waters. We piled up all two of our mini crab traps into the boat and set off. Turns out, there were no rogue waves. Actually, there weren’t ANY waves at all. It looked like a tranquil fresh water lake out there. And of course, the scenery is amazing. I cannot describe it, so I will just show you a couple of pictures:

We boated around and found a good place to drop the traps…according to Sig. Then we went and found this little beach where the water was so clear, I could see this:

And this:

We hung out there for a few hours while the crabbies were hopefully gnawing on our salmon bait and getting, well, trapped (hahahaha, I am hilarious!). Then came the time to gather the goods. We motored back out to our site and attached the traps to the hydraulic lift Mark’s two hands and pulled them up. Sure enough there were crabs in there! And just like on TV, we had to measure them and throw back the little ones and the females. I held a few:

Then, on the next stop, there were even more crabs. Here, have a look at the before and after picture of our traps:

This time I bravened up a little and pulled them out of the trap. Turns out they aren’t too thrilled to be pulled away from their dinner and they try to pinch you. But being me and of superior intelligence, I learned to grab them from the bottom, AWAY from the pinchers. Brilliant. I know. We sorted again and put our keepers into a little ice chest.

When we were nearing the shore we started to clean and prepare the crabs. Apparently you have to hold their claws in and then pound their head on the boat to kill them. Then you have to remove the shell, break them in half, and clean out all the guts and gills–all of which you just throw into the ocean for the other fishies to snack on. So I can now confess to you that I am officially a murderer because I killed and cleaned out my own crab. And I must say, I have skills, people….SKILLS! I mean, should the teaching thing not worked out…

For dinner we had steak (a meat which is nearly non-existent and inedible in Bulgaria) and shrimp and crab and baked potatoes with real sour cream (also non-existent in Bulgaria) and a delicious Caesar salad. And I am still full…the next morning. But man, it was TASTY. And I just might have found my second career….

Here is the post I had planned to put up before our last internet outage in BG.  It is a selection of some photos that pretty much sum up the year.  No words, just pictures…
  

Well, we’ve crossed the ocean. And what a crossing it was! I had fretted the entire evening prior to leaving about the whole weight of the bags versus how many checked bags, etc thing. You see, we flew British Airways this time because, well, frankly I have had it with United. We used up our free United miles to get to Spain and now I plan on canceling the card with them and recovering from our unhealthy relationship. And so I was free to date fly other airlines again.

Which meant I could go with the cheapest fare. Which, in this case, meant British. Now perhaps you more land-bound people do not realize that British Air has a…ummmm….reputation. And it’s not pretty. Similar to British people in general, they like to make up a lot of rules and live by them. For example: Your luggage ABSOLUTELY cannot be over-weight or they will charge you something like a million pounds for each pound over (heh. get it…pound for pound? I amuse myself.) Also, if you are traveling from one European destination to another European destination, you can only check in one bag each–which, of course, canNOT be over weight. But, if you are traveling from Europe to say, the U.S., you get two bags each. And ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY no more than ONE carry-on. Of course, if you can fit two carry on bags into one, then you can walk through security and unpack the second bag and then have two carry-ons—a loophole to the rule.

Well, anyways, you get the idea about the rules. So, I was concerned. Our first flight was from Malaga to London, and therefore a Europe-to-Europe destination, meaning we could only check a bag in each. Problem. We are moving home people. We have more than one bag each. But, being so intelligent as I am, we had two big bags and two small ones and two backpacks. This way I was ready for any rule. Only one bag each? No problem. Check in the big ones and attach the smaller ones in some fashion to the backpacks to get through security. Allowed two bags each (because, umm, technically we ARE flying over an ocean), no problem. Check in the two bigs and the two smalls and carry the backpacks. Now…the question of weight. See, the big bags can become heavy very quickly. So I strategically packed those full of only clothes, nothing else. The small bags housed all the books, movies, CDs, shoes, etc. This should help distribute our weight allowance.

So, as you can see, a lot of thought went into all this. A LOT of thought. Perhaps, some might say, too much. Especially when you consider how the whole check-in process went:

Agent: Passports, please. (Oh…did I mention I had accidentally, completely soaked my passport while I was in Spain? Oops…I was just hoping they would still take it. If not, I guess I would have had no choice but to live there….)

Us: Ok. Here you go.

Agent: (typing, typing, typing) Would you like me to check your bags all the way though to Canada, even though you change airlines in Seattle?

Us: Yes, please, that would be great!

Agent: How many bags?

Us: (wincing) Two each.

Agent: Ok. Just load them all up here and I will put the tags on them. Have a nice flight. Bye bye.

That was it. No weighing, no arguing, no fuss at all. Bizarre. And if you can believe it, things only got better. We got to London and went through our obligatory 28 security checks and arrived at our gate early enough to have a Starbucks coffee and spend some time on the internet. Then, when we were getting on the plane (the 10 hour flight one), we did our usual drooling over those super-snazzy sleeper beds in First Class. We passed the First Class cabin and adjusted our backpacks to head back to the cattle car when all of a sudden, we looked up and realized that our tickets said 21A and B, and there we were at 21A and B, which just so happened to be in Business Class. And not just in Business Class, but they were the bulkhead seat of Business Class, meaning no other seat in front of us. In fact, just one sheer, blue curtain separated us from First Class.

I could not believe it. We clearly did not pay for Business Class. We had stretched already to prepare for the yoga poses we would do in the cattle car. Mark started settling all in and I refused. I insisted there must be another row 21 in the back of the plane. I stood and waited for the line to walk by and then I did perhaps the dumbest thing in my life, which was to ASK the flight attendant if indeed there was another Row 21 because clearly my husband and I were in the wrong seats. The dude laughed at me. Out loud. And said in his British accent, “No, love, you are fine where you are at”. I took that as a sign to settle in. And so I did. I mean, PEOPLE, we were in a curtained area. Those poor economy people could not even enter our cabin. Heh. Heh.

So I played with the fancy TV screen that lifts out of the arm rest and reclined my seat, which just so happened to have another feature where the bottom has a foot rest that lifts up like a Barco-lounger. I tried on my little eye mask for sleeping and inspected the toothbrush you get in Business Class (you know, so we don’t smell like those Economy Class people). All the while, Mark acted like he belonged there, all nonchalant with his newspaper open and legs all crossed. As if he flew Business Class all the time.

And so the flight was fantastic! I was even sorry it ended. We caught our next 20-minute flight from Seattle to Victoria with no problems, and now we are here. It is really amazing here. Soooooo different from Spain of course. everything is all green and foresty and people have these amazing little gardens. Yesterday we walked around some of the reserves and checked out the port and downtown. We have plans to go crabbing (like on Deadliest Catch, except on a much, much smaller scale. But in my mind it will be like the TV show), and fishing, and looking for bears where the salmon are running. The nature here is amazing and the air is so clean. I can see why the Canucks are such peace-loving people.

Oh…and we are in civilization, staying with one of Mark’s business partners. So clearly, we have high-speed wireless internet, because…duh!…Mark’s business partners wouldn’t be caught dead without it. Which means that when I randomly wake up at 3am with my jet lag, I can upload photos of Spain and Canada here. Woooohoooooo! So look for them soon!

Before I tell you how terrific Spain and Barcelona are, I must vent one small thing.  The language here.  The whole s/th thing drives me CRAZY.  Gracias is grathias.  Barcelona is Barthelona.  You get the idea.  Now I can adjust to this.  But when we went to Barcelona, the language changed completely…to Catalan (I think that is what it is called), which seems to be some bizarre mix of French and Spanish.  I could figure out the writing, but when people spoke…forget it!  I could understand like one out of every four words.  So, here I am, in Spain, as a fluent Spanish speaker, and I CAN´T UNDERSTAND people.  Oh well.  The same thing happened in London…(but in English.  duh!)

Ok.  That is the end of my little rant.  Barcelona.  The short version…loved it!  We drove up there on Monday.  We have a little travel alarm clock with us, so I left it to Mark to set it for like 5:30 in the morning.  It went off in the dark and we dutifully got up, showered, packed the car with a a small bag of clothes and snacks and set off to Barcelona.  And then we looked at the clock.

It said 3:30 am. 

Which explains the complete darkness.  Mark tried to pin it on some clock malfunction, but I investigated and saw that Mark set the minutes instead of the hours.  So instead of putting the alarm hand near the 5, he put it on the 3, thinking 15 minutes after 5.  Oh well.  We were up and driving, so off we went.

We found Barcelona and our little hotel easily.  We got all settled in and since we had arrived a few hours earlier than expected (eh hem), we set out to explore.  We walked around for a while and noticed a place that was offering a Spanish cooking class the next day at 6:00 pm.  We noted it and put it on the agenda.  We found a place for tapas, ate, and then crashed into bed. 

On Day 2, we set out to see the sites.  We started at the rare, hardly-ever-seen-before Starbucks.  We were so excited to find a Starbucks–we´ve been without for most of the year you know!–so we just had to stop in!  Then we went directly to the Picasso Museum.  The line stretched across the whole city.  Ok, maybe not that far, but a long LONG ways.  So we decided to come back later.  Instead we got on the metro and went to the Sagrada Familia.

For those of you who don´t already know, the Sagrada Familia is a ginormous church that has been under construction for like 125 years already.  It looks like it will be under construction for 125 more.  But it was cool.  The original architect was the artist Gaudi, so there were bright colors and mosaics and just general big-ness.

Then we decided to go straight to Gaudi´s house.  It is in a park called Gruell Park and there are some of his statues there as well.  Little did we know that the walk up to the park was straight uphill.  STRAIGHT uphill. Like so steep I wouldn´t have skiied down it in the winter.  But we pressed on and survived.  Since it is located up next to the sun, the park offers beautiful views of the city.  We cruised around, rested in the shade, and eventually found Gaudi´s house.  Of course the park is full of huge mosaics.  Oddly enough, his house is not.  It is just a regular house.  But in a very cool location.

Next we headed back to Picasso.  This time the line was only like a third of the size.  So we waited in it.  It only took ike half an hour to get in.  I have to say…me not being an art connoisseur in any form…I was really impressed with that place.  They have many of his first works from when he was like 13 years old, which are quite amazing.  Then of course the art work progresses through his life.  I always made jokes about this Blue Period of his.  How some people spend a lifetime studying one of Picasso´s periods.  Ok, I will still make fun of that, but…it was cool to see how his work changed.  The last exhibit features his study of Las Meninas and they do this overlay where they show how his cubism stuff really is representing this classic painting.  I was intrigued.  I don´t think I will devote my life to the study of it, but I would definitely like to learn a bit more.  Mark was impressed, too, which tells you a lot.

By now it was time to head to the cooking class.  We got there and…it was cancelled.  So I was bummed.  We decided to go back to the hotel and have a siesta and a shower.  Then we headed to the Olympic Port for dinner.  But before dinner, we saw the most unusual sport.  These guys were playing beach volleyball, only it wasn´t volleyball.  They could not use their hands.  It had the same rules as volleyball (3 touches, then over the net, etc), but they had to use their feet and heads and shoulders.  Kind of like volley soccer I guess.  We watched it for a long time.  Then we ate–paella, of course.  We were exhausted so it was back to the hotel and to sleep. 

The next day we headed home.  10 hours in a car.  It wasn´t as bad as it seems because the scenery was beautiful, but still, it was good to be back.

We have spent the last 2 days lounging on various beaches.  Yesterday we went down to Torrox Costa and rented a very comfortable sun bed and palapa.  That bed was more comfortable than our bed in Bulgaria! We stayed there all day and all evening…swimming, reading, napping, playing smash ball.  You get the idea.

Today we went on the hunt for a little cove Mark saw while we were driving home from Barcelona.  We found it but we couldn´t find a way down the cliffside without harnesses and ropes.  So we forged on and found another one which was perfect.  There weren´t too many people, we had our snacks and an umbrella, and we read and swam and lounged all afternoon.  Now we will head to dinner.

Our plan for the last two days here is pretty much the same.  We might go into Malaga tomorrow just to check things out.  It will depend on how we feel in the morning.  Because that´s how we roll.  We lounge in the morning and then decide where to lounge the rest of the day.  The life of a lizard….

Oh speaking of lizards….we saw a HUGE gecko looking thing in the middle of the road today.  The dude just hung out there and there were like 6 cars waiting on him to move.  Hilarious!

And so I´m off, for a little more tasty cuisine and beverage next to the beach.  I know.  You´re jealous!

p.s.  Just so you know…about the reverse (since I was asked), Mark did not look in the glove compartment for car instructions…but I did.  And all that was there were instructions on what to do if you got into an accident–which was appropriate for us given that we were headed for one that very moment.  Luckily Mark´s fine car pushing skills saved us!

Well…here we are, in Spain.  But before I tell you about Spain, I must first tell you about our ironic last day in Bulgaria.  I had all these photos loaded up and ready to post here on the blog as a sort of visual montage to the year, and, of course….the internet went caput!  Also, our water was out for part of the day.  Doesn´t that just go with the whole year? Hahahaha!  So, when I can get internet on my own computer, I will upload my photo montage for you all.  Until then….Espana!

So we arrived here on Friday afternoon and promptly rented a car.  I should say here that I am not so into the car-rental-in-a-foreign-country thing.  But we did it.  The actual renting part was easy.  It was also easy to find the fantastic townhouse where we are staying (which belongs to friends of Marks parents and feels like a mansion compared to the flat where we have lived for the past year…we thought about just getting jobs here and moving in, changing the name from Villa ***** to Villa Drake), and everything was going really perfectly.  Too perfectly in fact.  So we continued on our merry way, setting things up, showering, etc.  Then around 10:00 pm, we headed out to dinner–they eat really late here.  And that is when the perfection ended…

Turns out, we dont know how to use reverse on the car.  We had parked in a dirt lot and walked around a bit and decided we would go further down to eat, but alas, we could not get out of the dirt lot.  Mark must have tried 80 times to figure out the reverse.  He was sweating and doing the nervous laugh.  Then he was getting a little grumpy.  I just kept saying, “There must be a trick to this”, which I am sure just totally helped the situation.  Clearly Mark knew there was a trick.  He perhaps did not appreciate me telling him this little fact 15 times.

Finally he got out and….imagine this!…pushed the car backwards while I turned the steering wheel.  Yeah.  And thats how we got out. It was a classy move.  This meant that we had to now limit our parking to only places that we did not have to back out of.  Go ahead–try that sometime.  Find a place to park where you never use reverse.  Now try it in a crowded beach community.  Good times.

So, needless to say, our perfect day did not end so perfectly.

On day 2, Mark figured out reverse first thing.  And yes, there was a trick.  We wont go into it here.  The we headed out to explore.  On both Saturday and Sunday, we pretty much strolled around little towns here on the beach and laid around in the sun and swam in the sea.  Oh, and ate delicious food…sangrias, paella, fresh fish, shrimp.  All delicious, and not a cucumber anywhere to be seen.  We live the life of kings here!

Today we are in Barcelona.  We drove all day to get here and we arrived in enough time to do some walking around.  This is a beautiful city!  And the weather is perfect, warm but not scorching. You dont actually need to see anything here, you can just cruise around and look at the buildings all day.  They are amazing!  But tomorrow we will indeed tour around and see the Picasso Museum, the Sagrada Familia, some Gaudi work, and of course, the Olympic Village from the 1992 Olympics (you know what an Olympic freak I am!)

There are many more stories to tell, but I have to do it bit by bit.  We cant get our computers to recognize the internet where we are staying (and frankly we dont want to waste our whole vacation trying) so we are bound to internet cafes…and you know how those go.  So, this is all for now.  More later!

 p.s.  I know there are apostrophes missing which is SO unacceptable for a teacher.  But the keyboard switched modes while I was sitting here (it did it all by itself I am sure…I touched nothing, NOTHING, I say), and now I cant figure out the apostrophes.  I will edit later–forgive the mistakes for now.

I’ve been meaning to photo-journal my daily walk to and from Mark’s office–my main source of daily exercise. But it was raining or I kept forgetting my camera or, or, or….you get the idea. Well, I finally did it. So here it is:

From our flat, I go out to the corner and turn left. Here is what I see:

Notice how the cars are parked all willy-nilly, on the streets and on the sidewalks, wherever there is space. This gets a little irritating when you are walking, especially if someone is walking on the same patch of sidewalk, but coming towards you. Then it is this weird dance/wait, you-go, no-I-go thing. This is one reason why you should always walk with headphones on, so you can just act oblivious that someone is walking right at you. You just walk right at them back!

Then I pass the British Ambassador’s house and the Hungarian Ambassador’s house, neither of which are photographed here. Ever since the time (years ago, on his first visit here) that Mark nearly got arrested for photographing government buildings and had to relinquish his camera, we opt NOT to photograph government facilities. Just imagine a nice house with a UK flag, and then another one next door with a Hungarian flag. There you have it.

Next, I go over the little river, which is actually some kind of run-off ditch that is always flowing:

Next I pass a playground, but it so happens that it is near an area frequented by, ummm….how to say……corrupt individuals who happen to drive Mercedes and wear all black…you get the idea. So I chose not to photograph the playground. But I have shown you playgrounds before–same idea, different locale.

Then it is up the hill I go:

This is my favorite part of the walk. There are lots of trees and it is almost a little jungly. To the right of this photo is yet another government residence. It used to be one of the homes of the dictator, years ago, and now it is another government residence, but no one seems to know whose or why or anything. Very odd…. And this, too, is not photographed (see reasons above).

Once I climb the hill, I find the little coffee shop on the corner and turn left. Here is what I see:

More willy-nilly parking, narrow streets which cause many arguments among drivers who are in a constant state of road rage. At the end of this street, a right turn, a short walk, and then I’m there. Voila!

That is pretty much my life there, and it should give you a good idea of what things generally look like here. Mark’s office is in a nice area of town, so you probably noticed it is not so dirty or graffiti’d. There is some trash and graffiti (definitely more than you would ever find in San Diego), but not as much as in the center of the city where we live, which is why I enjoy walking up there. Altogether it is like three and a half miles or so round trip.

Tomorrow is our last day here. This was my last walk to the office…kind of sad…but only until we visit again!

Time to start packing and cleaning baby.  I’m off to start.  The landlords are coming to inspect the place Thursday morning, so all must be done by then.  And it will, beeeeeelieeeeeeve me.

So I’m off.  Out!